FAFSA confusion - which parents report? Biological dad vs. stepfather income requirements

For the FAFSA, you only need to report information for the parent(s) with whom the student lived for the majority of the 12 months prior to filing. Since your son has lived with you and your husband, you would report both of your information as the residential parents. The biological father's information is NOT required since he doesn't live with your son. Regarding your income not being asked for - that's definitely not right. The FAFSA should collect information from both you and your husband if you're married and living together. I'd recommend starting over with the application. Make sure when you get to the parent section, you're selecting that you're married, and it should prompt for both of your information. The new FAFSA has had some technical issues since the redesign.

omg same thing happened to my sister last week! the new system is SO buggy. it only asked for her husband's info but not hers either. she ended up having to call fsa and they told her it was a known issue with married couples sometimes. def start over

I had to deal with this exact situation last year! For blended families, FAFSA only cares about who the student LIVES with. So if your son lives with you and your husband, then only you two report. Bio dad is completely irrelevant for FAFSA purposes. But the system DEFINITELY should have asked for your income too! The SAI calculation needs both parents' income if you're married. Maybe try a different browser? The new FAFSA system has been a nightmare.

When I encountered this exact problem (FAFSA not asking for my income, only my spouse's), I spent HOURS trying to get through to an actual human at FSA. After getting disconnected three times, I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me connected to a real FAFSA agent in about 14 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The agent confirmed it was a known glitch and walked me through manually adding my income information. Saved me so much frustration!

THE WHOLE FAFSA SYSTEM IS BROKEN!!!!! My daughter lost her scholarship bc these idiots cant make a working website!!! We had the SAME EXACT PROBLEM with parent info missing and when we finally got it fixed they said the SAI was calculated wrong the first time!!! This is peoples FUTURES they are messing with!!!

Let me clarify the parent contribution rules for FAFSA: 1. For divorced, separated, or never-married parents, FAFSA only considers the residential parent(s) - the parent(s) with whom the student lived for the majority of the past 12 months. 2. If that parent has remarried (as in your case), the stepparent's information must also be included. 3. The biological father who has never lived with the student is NOT considered for FAFSA purposes. Regarding the technical issue you're experiencing: this is a documented bug in the new FAFSA system affecting some married households where it fails to collect income information from one parent. Here's what to do: 1. Try clearing your browser cache and cookies, then restart the application 2. If that doesn't work, try a different browser 3. If still experiencing issues, contact Federal Student Aid directly 4. Be sure to verify your Student Aid Index (SAI) calculation after submission - an incomplete parent section will result in an incorrect SAI Documentation for stepparent rules: https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/parent-info

Quick update on my similar situation - I finally got through to FSA and they explained that sometimes the system has a glitch where if you check certain boxes about your tax filing status, it can skip the income questions for one parent. The agent had me delete the application and start over, being super careful about how I answered the tax filing questions. That fixed it for me!

just wondering did u finally get it to work?? im about to start mine and now im scared lol

So glad you got it resolved! For anyone else dealing with this issue, here are some additional tips that might help: 1. Make sure you're using the most up-to-date version of your browser 2. If you're married and filing taxes jointly, be very explicit about selecting "Married filing jointly" - the system seems to have trouble with this step 3. Don't rush through the parent information section - take your time with each question 4. If you get stuck, screenshot where the system stops asking for information so you can reference it when calling FSA The new FAFSA has definitely been a learning curve for everyone. Thanks for sharing your experience - it'll help other families in similar situations!